His task? 'I make sure customers are happy'

February 05, 2006

Mihir Agtey, a manager at International House of Pancakes on North Main Street in Mishawaka, has missed Thanksgiving dinner two years in a row. The lines stretch out the door on holidays, but to Agtey, it's just another day in the fast-paced, cutthroat restaurant industry. Tribune staff writer Robin Toepp talked with Agtey recently about his job as a restaurant manager. What do you do in an average day? In a restaurant, there are a lot of things to do, from making sure all of the employees are on the clock, all of the product is in that is on the menu, all of the equipment is running, administrative things like making sure payroll is done, all of those things have to be scheduled. We also have a truckload (of food) twice a week that comes in. It sounds challenging. Yes, because when you sit down at a table and you order an item, you don't realize the components which go into getting that item or service to you. There are a lot of parts in getting the food up there and any of those links, if they are broken, we have a problem and the result is the way you judge the restaurant. So we have got to make all of those parts move at the right pace, and the end result is that you will come back here again. How long have you been a manager here? About three years, since they opened this store. What led you to this position? Were you always in food service? Yes, I have been working in restaurants for about 15 years. Is that what you went to school to do? Yes, Miami Dade Community College, in Miami in 1975, and I did an associate's degree there, and I went to India to work in restaurants there and came back to the U.S. and worked in restaurants. You have a lot of experience, then? Depending on the level of experience. Each one is part of the job, all the way down to the one mopping the floor. Do you have a favorite part? I like this (managing), because you are not doing one job all of the time. You need to make sure the floor doesn't go down in any way, that's the most important part of this job. There should be somebody who takes the order, somebody who makes sure the order goes into the kitchen, somebody who cooks the food, the food should be there, the equipment should work right, the food comes out hot and it is cooked the way it is originally designed to give the appearance. At the end of that, when you (the customer) get it, when you have this in mind, that this is how it is supposed to look, and this is how it is supposed to taste, if it doesn't match that, then it doesn't live up to your expectations. How fast are people in and out of the restaurant? About 20 minutes. So in an hour's time, we should turn this table three times. The capacity of the restaurant is fixed, so you try to turn the people in and out, we try to do that in a span of time without rushing somebody. We count by chairs, so there are 210 seats, some have four, some have six, some have two. Do you eat here? Every day. What is your favorite meal? Depends. Sometimes I see a customer ordering a dish but slightly different, and you look at it and say, "Wow that looks nice." But it changes. In three years' time, you imagine you eat here five, six days a week, maybe sometimes two meals if you are working over a certain time, and we have a pretty extensive menu. Also, this is a test store, so they bring out new items every six months, so every six months we change our menu, 22 to 28 items. And then we test them for six months and then we tell them good and bad points with the item, and then they put new items on the menu. So the other 1,000 stores will get it six months afterward, and then we get a new one on us that they want us to test. That's sounds interesting to be a test market. Yes, but then what happens when every six months, you have to change the whole menu, not just one product or one item? They put some in the breakfast, some in the lunch, some in the dinner to see which ones work. We are constantly working on the new product to see how you feel. If you like it, it will go national. But you, the customer, might say, I don't like the new one. But we can't have two items at the same time you might get upset, say, "Where is my old stuff?" So it has its advantages, and it has its disadvantages. You're not the only manager at this store, correct? No, there are five managers here. This is a 24-hour operation. We have one manager at every shift and then some segments where we have several managers so we have more control. And you are open 365 days a year? We don't close at all. It is surprising to learn that people eat here on a holiday. Do you really have a lot of people actually come on those days? Yes, a lot of them. That's one of the reasons to keep it open, because you cannot justify the labor, otherwise. Now, people know that we are open. What other kinds of positions have you held? You work your way up. You work as a shift manager, a cook, or a general manager. Have you worked in different styles of restaurants? Yes, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Blimpie's. Are you from the United States? No, I was born in New Delhi. What made you come to the United States? The United States has a lot to offer in a lot of fields, and you learn it firsthand by coming here. I came straight to South Bend. My brother was here, he was a graduate of Notre Dame and did his MBA, graduated, got a job. Why leave India? I thought I could better myself, and see what I could accomplish. If you were to go to a school where they taught restaurant management, what kinds of advice would you give to students? Today's market is highly competitive, and the restaurant field is really ruled by, if you don't give proper service and proper items, you can go bust. So you have be very careful in a restaurant. And it's a commodity, and it's the kind of commodity that can just vanish away. There are different places you can lose money on so you have got to be sure your operation is running good and make sure the other people don't steal your customers because there are too many restaurants around. The person who puts in his money wants his return on that. Looking at that aspect, how do you get that return? You have to have a sale; the bookkeeping, the food, the labor you must have in line. You must have profit or else you are going to go out of business and you are out of a job. How do you handle that as Main Street in Mishawaka develops with all of the restaurants and what they have to offer? The main thing you've got to realize is, What is your unique possibility from that guy over there? We serve breakfast. Nobody is serving breakfast over here, so whoever is in the breakfast market we've got a job trying to get them in here and coming back again. We've got 15 restaurants in the same block, and we are competing for the same market. So you've got to get the product to your segment. So many restaurants are coming up, the advertising is so heavy, if the person is going to come back, you've got to make sure none of the sequences go down, that his experience is outstanding because if he doesn't come in here ... I have lost a customer and a sale, and that's highly crucial and can kill the business completely. And everybody who is in the business must realize that is the bottom line. How do you personally ensure that customers come back? I make sure that they are happy, so if I can make his experience enjoyable and he is getting a good deal on his money and he is getting good service. Coming next week: Watching parents take pictures through the nursery window is enjoyable for a director of a neonatal intensive care unit.